1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, systems, and products for migrating an operating system from a source computer to a destination computer.
2. Description of Related Art
There are a number of situations where operating system migration from a source computer to a destination computer is appropriate and commonly performed. If a system administrator is planning hardware maintenance on the source computer hardware, for example, the system administrator may migrate the operating system including its currently installed applications to another computer. Another situation where operating system migration is appropriate and often performed is when an operating system running one source computer has outgrown the physical resource limitations of that source computer's hardware and a system administrator may want to migrate to another computer whose hardware that can accommodate the resource requirements.
Performing operating system migration poses a number of challenges when the operating system is operating as a component in a complex network, such as for example, a Storage Area Network (‘SAN’). A SAN is a dedicated network that serves to interconnect storage-related resources available to one or more networked servers. A SAN is typically separate from local area networks (‘LANs’) and wide area networks (‘WANs’). SANs are often characterized by high interconnection data rates between member storage peripherals. SANs are also often characterized by highly scalable architectures. SANs include both hardware and software for hardware management, monitoring, and configuration.
One reason operating system migration poses a challenge when the operating system to be migrated is connected to a SAN, is that SANs are typically ‘zoned.’ Zoning is a logical grouping of hosts and resources. A zoned operating system is only allowed access to storage devices within the operating system's zone. Zoning a SAN has a number of benefits including load balancing, dedication of storage capacity, data integrity, and security, as well as others that will occur to those of skill in the art.
One type of zoning that is commonly implemented with a SAN is logical unit masking (‘LUN masking’). In LUN masking, each storage device is subdivided into logical units (‘LUNs’) and each storage device restricts operating systems access to a particular LUN. That is, an operating system is only allowed access to storage within its LUN.
Conventional operating system migration techniques require extensive reconfiguration of the SAN to the operating system to access the same storage in the same LUNs after migration. There is therefore an ongoing need for methods, systems, and products for migrating an operating system from a source computer to a destination computer that requires little or no reconfiguration of a storage area network.